Our Team

Our team has unrivalled experience of organics recycling with broad operational experience across the country to deliver a premium service for our customers. We are also supported by the Business Growth Fund and its team of investors to help grow our operations across the UK.

Investors

Business Growth Fund was established in 2011 to help Britain’s growing smaller and medium sized businesses. Backed by five of the UK’s main banking groups – Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds, RBS and Standard Chartered – BGF is an investment company that provides growth capital for ambitious entrepreneurs running growing UK companies.

In August 2015 BGF invested £2.2m in Keenan Recycling to support expansion in the Central Belt and its ambitions for growth across the UK.

Grant KeenanManaging Director

Grant is Managing Director of Keenan Recycling, Scotland’s largest organic recycling company and chairs the Organic Recycling group Scotland, now part of REA (The Renewable Energy Association). He is a Board member of Aberdeen and Grampian Chamber of Commerce and also sits on the Board of Enterprise North East Trust (Rebranded as Elevator) which is a world class incubator for entrepreneurs.

Gregor KeenanTechnical Director

Gregor is a Technical Director and joined the company in 2004. He has 12 years experience in Organics Recycling and is responsible for PAS100 and ABPR Accreditations. He has expertise in composting operations, particularly In-vessel processing and is a Member of UK Compost Certification Scheme Technical Advisory Committee.

Mel KeenanDirector

Mel is a Director of Keenan Recycling. He was the former Chairman of the Offshore Fire Training Centre at Montrose which he steered through mergers first with the Scottish Offshore Training Association and then with RGIT to form RGIT Montrose, one of the world leading providers of sea survival, fire-fighting and general safety training to the offshore oil and gas industry.

Jim ClarkChairman

Jim is the Chairman of Keenan Recycling. He is a serial entrepreneur with over 250 investments since 1982 and c£120m of exits since 2007. He is an experienced Non-Executive Director with a broad range of management skills and five years previous experience as a Main Board Director of a listed PLC. He has a current portfolio of business interests, servicing over 3000 customers and a comprehensive understanding of mechanics relating to business law, accountancy and banking.

Richard PughBoard member

Richard joined BGF in August 2011 and is based in Aberdeen. His role is to identify and successfully execute investments for BGF then work with portfolio companies to support their growth plans. Richard has 10 years’ experience in investments into small and mid-sized companies. This was initially as an adviser at PwC where he was involved in over 30 corporate and private equity transactions in the UK and overseas and since 2011 at BGF, where he has been involved in seven investments so far, with a particular focus on oil service companies.

Luca PornaroUK Business Manager

Luca is a food recycling expert and he recently joined Keenan Recycling in the capacity of UK Business Manager to drive the business forward in the central belt, and expand it further in new areas of the UK. Luca moved to Scotland from Italy in 1998 where he spent almost a decade managing global contact centre operations for blue chip companies. He later started the “food waste revolution” in 2008 whenhe set up CORE, a social enterprise which was the first service in Scotland to offer food waste collections and recycling before moving on to manage food waste operations for Mitie and Binn Group.

Andrew ThomsonFinancial Director

Andrew joined Keenan Recycling in 2012 and was appointed to the board as Finance Director in 2013. He recalls being captivated by the company’s vision and values. As he puts it “My sense of purpose here is palpable. Working for a company like Keenan Recycling, which is delivering a real and positive change to the environment we all inhabit, is massively fulfilling”. Prior to 2012 his professional career was spent mainly in the Pulp and Paper industry where, as well as the UK, he worked for spells in Poland, France, Belgium and Finland.

Claire KeenanHead of Food Waste Collections

Claire was instrumental in the early days when Keenan Recycling was born. Claire helps the company capitalise on the growth opportunity brought about by the introduction of new regulations. She is currently working with the collection teams across Scotland and England to help deliver a smooth and efficient collection service of the highest standard.

Ritchie ClarkFinance Director

Ritchie joined the company as Commercial Director in 2016. Having trained as a Chartered Accountant with Deloitte, he gained significant corporate finance and M&A experience through his previous roles as a Director within Investment Bank, Simmons & Company, and the Bank of Scotland’s Acquisition Finance team and its debt and equity investment arm, Integrated Finance.

Andrew GerlachRegional Sales Manager

Andrew looks after the sales team in the central belt and is responsible for driving the commercial growth and customer service for food waste collections in Glasgow, Edinburgh and surrounding areas. The team pride themselves on responding to customer enquiries within an hour and offer a personal waste audit of every customer site. He ensures that each customer has their new bins delivered personally by their account managers with all the correct training for kitchen and front of house staff.